Is this normal for a trumpet player??

Question

i am a freshman in high school and i have been playing for only 2 years

i just started marching band and i feel pretty good

m tone is pretty good and my range can hit high C

i have hit high E before(way above the staff) and it felt pretty good

but lately my tone and range and endurance have suffered is this from playing more than i am used to

if so what should i do

any tips are helpful

Answer 1

If you can only hit a high E (I'm assuming three ledger lines above the staff (not top space) then that's good. You should never try and play that high without warming up. If you find that you can't hit the note after you've been playing a while here are some things you can do:

Ok. So before I give you this secret, you must promise that it never replaces your practicing!! Nothing can ever replace your practicing. Here's the secret and some other pointers

The Secret- (now the cats out of the bag on the internet!)

*the pencil trick*

My friend who went to BYU for trumpet performance was given this trick before he went on his mission (he's Mormon) so that he wouldn't lose his chops when he couldn't practice.

For him, he would lose his chops (he could scream the upper register...) for you, you'll get chops of steal.

Take a pencil and place the tip (just a little of it) of the eraser just under your top lip. Hold it there for 5 minutes. If your doing it right you'll feel the corners of your mouth get hot and tight within a minute or so. If you can't hold it for 5, don't force it. I gave this trick to my buddy who was last chair trumpet in the Wind Ensemble a few weeks before auditions and he took the principal seat.

The pencil trick is like lifting weights for your chops, so when you pick your trumpet up after your pencil work out, you'll have greater strength for the high notes! This works real well. I can play higher then 99% of the trumpet players I meet.

#2 - No pressure. This is one for the long run, but you won't be able to change this real quickly without sacrificing range. The more muscles you build the less pressure you'll need to use. (For some of the real high notes a little pressure is necessary). Practice moving the trumpet away from your face as you play. Pressing the mouthpiece against your lips will let you play higher, but at the expense of endurance, because your not using your muscles to play higher, your using the pressure. The less you press the longer you can play high and the nicer your being to your body.

#3 - Short Tones and Long Tones.

The old idea is that long tones are a great way to warm up. After a lot of new scientific research, people have found that Long tones work your muscles really hard and that warming up with them doesn't make sense. It's like trying to run a 5 mile marathon before a 3 mile race. What would you want to do instead of run 5 miles? You'd want to stretch!

Stretching equals short tones.

Here's what you do:

Start at G (second line), focus your chops and play a short note (not real short, maybe like a quarter note at 120bpm) then after the tone happens (or doesn't happen) while keeping your emboucher focused, take the instrument off of your face, then relax your face and lightly rub the corners of your mouth then relax for 5 seconds. Next do the same thing, but go up chromatically to G# , then down to F# continue to balance going up a note with going down a note. If your chops don't focus properly for the note you want, try again, but only after you take the instrument off of your mouth and release your emboucher. if you haven't got the note in three tries, put the instrument down for a few seconds and start back a little.

There's your warm up! This is great because it forces you to focus your chops properly for each note chromatically, so when you need to play it, your chops are perfect! Unlike with long tones you've got a while to focus. Do your short tones with a tuner.

The long tones will really strengthen your chops....Do you long tones in the middle of your practice, but balance high and low just like you did with the short tones. When you practice long tones, practice with a tuner. Also add something so you don't get bored like practicing a crescendo or Fp on each note.

#4 - Air - Without air, you've got no sound. If you're not using your air properly you wont be able to play well, high or low...

How to breathe. Lay on your back and place a book on your stomach. You should see the book rise naturally without trying to raise it! When you take in a breath take in all the air you can. Breathe in through your mouth! musicians don't breath in through their nose (unless their circular breathing!), it's too restricted, slow and you could never play if you were stuffed up and sick and I've played many a gig stuffed up!

Because there is normally so much air around, people aren't used to taking in all the air they can... they don't need to. Practice taking large, comfortable breaths with an open throat, making sure your stomach is coming out. If your stomach is coming in, you're restricting your lung capacity. Take in your breathe first with your stomach and then your chest. Make sure your throat is open so that you can get as much air as possible into your lungs as quick as possible! You should never tighten your throat! It's never good to tighten anything related to breathing when playing a musical instrument. Tighten